James Rubin is one of the world's foremost specialists in the history, theory and criticism of nineteenth century avant-garde European Art, especially that of France. He teaches courses at the graduate and undergraduate level. His interests are interdisciplinary, with special attention to cultural history, art and politics, and art and philosophy. He was educated at Phillips Academy Andover, Yale (B.A.), Harvard (PhD), and the Institut d’Art et d’Archéologie of the Sorbonne in Paris (license-ès-lettres). He has taught at Harvard, Boston University, Princeton and the Cooper Union.

James has published over sixty articles and essays on subjects ranging from the eighteenth century to the present. He has given over sixty public lectures in North America, Western and Eastern Europe, and Asia. He is the author of twelve published books: Eighteenth Century French Life-Drawing (1977); Realism and Social Vision in Courbet and Proudhon (1981); Eugène Delacroix’s ‘Dantebarke’ (1987); Manet’s Silence and the Poetics of Bouquets (1994); Courbet, Art and Ideas (1997); Impressionism, Art and Ideas (1999); Nadar (2001); Impressionist Cats and Dogs: Pets in the Painting of Modern Life·(2003); Impressionism and the Modern Landscape: Productivity, Technology, and Urbanization from Manet to Van Gogh (2008); Manet: Initial M, Hand and Eye (2010); Realism and Music: Courbet, Berlioz, Wagner and Relations between the Arts in Nineteenth-Century France (2012, e-book); and How to Read Impressionism: Ways of Looking (2013). A thirteenth book, Rival Sisters: Art and Music at the Birth of Modernism, 1815-1915 is in press, forthcoming in 2014. His books have been translated into several languages including, French, Greek, Korean, Japanese, and Dutch.

James has served on the International Committee of the College Art Association and represented the CAA at the United Nations. He is a member and Vice-President of the Société Paul Cézanne, based in Aix-en-Provence, France. At Stony Brook, he is an affiliate of the Department of European Languages, the Department of Cultural Studies and Critical Analysis, and the Department of Philosophy. When he teaches graduate seminars at Stony Brook's annex campus in Manhattan, they are cross-listed with Philosophy as part of Stony Brook’s Art and Philosophy program. He travels frequently, speaks fluent French, and lives in Manhattan, New York and Mittelbergheim, Alsace (http://domainedurotland.net). His Boston Terrier’s name is Texas Pete.